


The Taste of Her Cherry Chapstick

by sarken



Category: The Closer
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash Friday in Femslash February, High School AU, Kissing, That Infernal Katy Perry Song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-20 09:05:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6000093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarken/pseuds/sarken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brenda has flavored lip balm. Sharon has opinions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Taste of Her Cherry Chapstick

Sharon doesn't need to look up from her homework to identify the sound coming from across the room. It's Brenda rummaging noisily through her makeup box, followed by the soft _pop_ of her pulling the cap off a tube of lip balm.

"Which one is that?" Sharon asks, trying not to seem too interested. She traces the tip of her pencil along a function she's already graphed.

"New one," Brenda says. Another soft _pop_ \-- this time, Brenda deliberately, loudly smacking her lips. "Well, new one of an old one. Jellybean." Then, annoyed: "What?"

Sharon looks up and frowns. "I didn't say a word."

"You made a face."

Sharon thinks about protesting, but Brenda is probably right. "It's just... not my favorite," she says, as diplomatically as possible, but she still doesn't like saying it, so she's quick to add, "But they're your lips. You can do whatever you want."

A grin isn't the reaction Sharon expected, and it's her turn to ask, "What?"

Brenda's grin gets bigger. Slyer. "You have a favorite?"

Warmth rises in Sharon's neck and blossoms in her cheeks. "It's an _expression_." She pushes herself up from her reclining position on the carpet. "It seemed more polite than telling you I'd rather kiss you after you ate a loaf of garlic bread."

Brenda glares and throws the purple lip balm back into the box. "At least mine _has_ a flavor," she says, and Sharon opens her mouth to tell Brenda just how _childish_ her flavored lip balm collection is, but Brenda has already gone into the bathroom and slammed the door.

The faucet turns on, and Sharon sighs, leaning back until her head hits the side of Brenda's mattress. For good measure, she hits her head against it once, then twice. Her diplomacy could use some work, but she's never responded well to being teased -- being an only child didn't give her much chance to get inured to it. Brenda tries to keep her teasing gentle, and Sharon has gotten better at responding less viciously, thanks in no small part to Brenda's brothers, but sometimes they both forget.

She's thinking about apologizing when the door opens, but quickly changes her mind. She hates apologizing if she can avoid it, and Brenda doesn't look mad at all as she picks up the shiny magenta box that holds her makeup and carries it over before sitting on the floor facing Sharon.

Brenda takes a brown tube out of the box, pulls off the cap, and holds it up.

It takes everything Sharon has not to pull back and say, "You're not putting that on me." Instead, she asks carefully, neutrally, "What are you doing?"

To Sharon's relief, Brenda runs the lip balm over her own lips, back and forth to put it on thick. "Finding your favorite."

Before Sharon can process what that means, Brenda is leaning in and kissing her, one hand on the floor near Sharon's hip as she presses her back firmly against the bed. It only lasts for a few short seconds, not long enough for Sharon to respond, and when Brenda pulls back, Sharon runs her tongue over her own lips.

There's not much to go on, so she sneaks a look at the tube as Brenda puts the top back on. She can make out the writing, and it doesn't make any sense, so she's hesitant when she says, "Cherry?"

"Cherry Coke." Brenda rubs the back of her hand against her mouth, trying to wipe the lip balm off, and Sharon rolls her eyes.

"Ah." Sharon grabs a tissue from Brenda's nightstand, hands it to her, and grabs a few more. While Brenda wipes at her mouth, Sharon says, "Tell me what the next one is first."

Brenda grins before grabbing not a tube, but a rubbery little container that looks like an orange ice pop with eyes. "Creamsicle," she says, somewhat unnecessarily, and Sharon nods, can't help but let her tongue slide across her own lips as she watches a little too attentively as Brenda puts the lip balm on.

When Brenda kisses her this time, Sharon's eyes close, and she thinks about kissing Brenda in the summer, their sunglasses clicking awkwardly together, the smell of sunscreen and faint taste of salt. She tries to imagine cool, juicy orange and creamy vanilla, compare it to the taste she finds when she runs her tongue across Brenda's lips.

When Brenda pulls away, Sharon shakes her head. "Too vanilla."

"Yeah," Brenda says. "I mostly just keep it 'cause the package is cute."

Candy cane is next, a shimmery, frosted gloss that tastes exactly like it's supposed to: like mint sweetened with vanilla, reminding Sharon of sips stolen from Brenda's peppermint mocha and a promise to find mistletoe to kiss under next year. It leaves both of them with sticky lips, and Brenda takes a pink tube into the bathroom with them for after they rinse off their mouths.

It's bubblegum, and it could be the week Sharon learned what it was like to kiss a girl, to not want to _stop_ kissing that girl, to kiss her under the bleachers and in the library and on her parents' front porch, but instead, it's getting carried away right there, lifting Brenda up to sit on the edge of her bathroom sink. It's when her head tilts back and Sharon's teeth scrape her skin that Brenda -- _Brenda_ \-- is the one who stops them.

"Sharon," she says, pushing at Sharon's shoulders. "Sharon, I ain't wearing lip balm on my neck."

Sharon pulls back, sheepish, knows if she looks in the mirror, she'll see her face flushed pink, from embarrassment and something more. "Actually, you kind of are now," she says, and she pulls her sleeve over her hand to rub it off Brenda's skin. "There."

Brenda slips off the sink and grabs Sharon's hand. "C'mon," she says, giving Sharon's hand a tug. "I'm thinking we found your favorite, but I still got lots more."


End file.
